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A summary of today's developments
- Merck & Co has said that its experimental Covid pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people recently infected. The multinational pharmaceutical company said it would soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorise its use.
- The UK recorded a further 127 Covid deaths and 35,577 new cases on Friday. By comparison, Thursday’s data reported 137 deaths and 36,480 cases.
- Morocco will soon start giving a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the country’s health ministry said.
- Nigeria has secured approval for $400 million in World Bank financing to procure and deploy Covid-19 vaccinations, the bank said in a statement.
- The European Union drug regulator said today that there is a possible link between rare cases of bloods clots in deep veins with Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine.
- It has been estimated that one in 20 young people at secondary school in England are estimated to have had coronavirus last week.
- Booster jabs have been given to more than 860,000 people in England, according to the NHS.
- A publicly owned oxygen plant has opened in Somalia, where shortages of oxygen had, as in many developing countries, hampered treatment of coronavirus patients.
- Nine people were killed when a fire broke out in an intensive care unit at a Romanian hospital treating Covid patients, Reuters reports.
- India has announced that Britons will have to take Covid tests and undertake a 10-day mandatory quarantine when arriving in the country.
- The US supreme court has announced Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for Covid.
- In the US, California has announced the nation’s first coronavirus vaccination mandate for schoolchildren. The plan, announced by Governor Gavin Newsom, will see all elementary and high school students receive jabs once the vaccine gains final approval from the US government for different age groups.
- Italy reported 52 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday - up one from the 51 registered the day before, the health ministry said. It comes as the daily tally of new infections fell to 3,405 from 3,804.
- In Australia, Victoria state has included professional athletes in a vaccination mandate that will require about 1.25 million “authorised workers” to have two Covid shots by the end of November.
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Russia has recorded its highest coronavirus death toll for a fourth day running, the Moscow Times reports.
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Sri Lanka has lifted a near six-week lockdown but maintained a night curfew and a ban on public gatherings and parties, AFP reports.
Mexico’s health ministry on Friday reported 7,388 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 471 fatalities.
It brings the total to 3,671,611 infections and 277,976 deaths, Reuters reports.
The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher, and separate data published recently suggested the actual death toll could be 60% higher than the official count.
Updated
The US announced it is sending more than eight million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh and the Philippines.
Five shipments totalling 5,575,050 doses will go the Philippines by next week, a White House official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another 2,508,480 doses will arrive early next week in Bangladesh, the official said.
The vaccines – all Pfizer-BioNTech – are being donated through the World Health Organization’s Covax program.
Updated
Brazil had 18,578 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 506 deaths, the country’s health ministry said on Friday.
The South American country has now registered 21,445,651 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 597,255, according to ministry data.
With 40% of Brazilians now fully vaccinated, the rolling seven-day average of Covid deaths has fallen to one third of the toll of almost 3,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic in April, Reuters reports.
US supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to block a requirement that all of New York City’s public school teachers and employees be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Sotomayor denied a challenge by a group of four teachers and teaching assistants who sought to halt the city’s vaccine mandate while litigation over the dispute continues in lower courts, Reuters reports.
Public school system workers were ordered to be vaccinated by 5pm EDT (2100 GMT) on 1 October or face being placed on unpaid leave until September 2022.
Updated
UK government data up to 30 September shows that of the 93,765,322 Covid jabs given, 48,863,490 were first doses, a rise of 34,372 on the previous day.
Some 44,901,832 were second doses, an increase of 34,459.
Updated
UK death toll increases by 127
The UK government said a further 127 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday, bringing the total to 136,789.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 161,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
As of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 35,577 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the government said.
Updated
Morocco will soon start giving a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the country’s health ministry said.
Morocco has administered the most doses in Africa, inoculating 19.8 million people out of a population of about 36 million, mostly with Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs, Reuters reports.
US health officials are hoping data on Israeli military personnel can help clarify the risk of heart muscle inflammation in younger people who have received Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 booster shots.
A condition called myocarditis has in rare cases been linked to the two-dose mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, mostly in younger males, but US health officials are trying to better understand the risk, Reuters reports.
“The real question that we have not yet answered is the safety data of an mRNA in young people vis-a-vis myocarditis,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and the top US infectious disease expert, said.
“The Israelis will relatively soon have that data because they’re vaccinating everybody in the country I think from 12 years old up, including their military recruits,” Fauci added.
Updated
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said molnupiravir is “a potential additional tool... to protect people from the worst outcomes of Covid,” but added that vaccination “remains far and away, our best tool against Covid-19.”
The experimental antiviral pill developed by Merck & Co could halve the chances of dying or being hospitalized for those most at risk of contracting severe Covid-19, according to data that experts hailed as a potential breakthrough in how the virus is treated.
If it gets authorisation, molnupiravir, which is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, would be the first oral antiviral medication for the virus.
Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said they plan to seek US emergency use authorisation for the pill as soon as possible and to make regulatory applications worldwide, Reuters reports.
Updated
The US administered 393,756,866 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 477,069,555 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Those figures are up from the 392,909,995 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Thursday out of 474,245,945 doses delivered.
The agency said 214,597,690 people had received at least one dose while 184,852,416 people had been fully vaccinated as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Friday, Reuters reports.
Compared to coronavirus cases earlier in the pandemic, infections with the Delta variant lead to worse outcomes for unvaccinated pregnant women, new data suggests.
Doctors studied 1,515 pregnant women with Covid-19 who received care in Dallas in the US from May 2020 through to September 2021.
Overall, 82 women - 81 of whom were unvaccinated - developed severe illness, including 10 who needed ventilators and two who died, Reuters reports.
The proportion of severe or critical cases among pregnant women was around 5% until early 2021, and were “largely nonexistent” in February and most of March 2021, the researchers said.
In late summer, during the peak of the surge of the Delta variant, the proportion of pregnant Covid-19 patients requiring hospitalisation jumped to 10% to 15%, they reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Nigeria has secured approval for $400 million in World Bank financing to procure and deploy Covid-19 vaccinations, the bank said in a statement.
The World Bank board of directors signed off on the financing, provided via the International Development Association, which it said would enable Africa’s most populous nation to purchase jabs for 40 million people, some 18% of its population, and support vaccine deployment to 110 million people.
In a statement, the bank said the money would ensure that the government can vaccinate 51% of its population within two years and “avoid the dreadful consequences of another lockdown that left in its wake an economic toll the country is still grappling with.”
The government last month said that around 20% of workers in Nigeria had lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.
Zambia has announced the complete lifting of coronavirus restrictions from the weekend although just 3% of eligible people in the southern African country are fully vaccinated.
“Following the reduced transmission of Covid-19 in Zambia, the government has decided to lift the restrictions,” health minister Sylvia Masebo said.
So far there have been over 209,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,650 deaths.
From Saturday, there will be no limits on the size of religious gatherings, while bars, markets, shops and nightclubs can all operate as normal and everyone can go back to work, Masebo said.
Updated
Here is some more on California having the US’s first Covid-19 vaccination mandate for schoolchildren.
Updated
Updated
The US Food and Drug Administration said an advisory panel of its experts would hold meetings later this month to discuss authorizing booster doses of Moderna Inc and Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines, Reuters reports.
The panel will also discuss authorising Pfizer Inc’s jab for children aged five to 11.
Updated
The White House is pressing major US airlines to mandate vaccines for employees by 8 December, sources told Reuters.
White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients spoke to the chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines on Thursday to ensure they were working expeditiously to develop and enforce vaccine requirements ahead of the 8 December deadline for federal contractors, the sources said.
Some airline officials had asked the White House to push back the requirements, signed by President Joe Biden last month, until after the busy holiday travel season.
Zients urged the airlines “to act sooner than later to ensure as smooth of an implementation process as possible,” one source said, and urged them to look at United Airlines’ vaccine requirement that was announced in August.
Updated
The first clinical trial results showing a positive effect for a pill that can be taken at home has been hailed as a potential gamechanger that could provide a new way to protect the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of Covid-19.
Molnupiravir joins a growing list of medicines that have shown promise. Here are some of the main developments in treatments so far:
Summary
Here is a round-up of all the latest Covid news from the day so far:
- Merck & Co has said that its experimental Covid pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people recently infected. The multinational pharmaceutical company said it would soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorise its use.
- The UK recorded a further 127 Covid deaths and 35,577 new cases on Friday. By comparison, Thursday’s data reported 137 deaths and 36,480 cases.
- The European Union drug regulator said today that there is a possible link between rare cases of bloods clots in deep veins with Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine.
- It has been estimated that one in 20 young people at secondary school in England are estimated to have had coronavirus last week.
- Booster jabs have been given to more than 860,000 people in England, according to the NHS.
- A publicly owned oxygen plant has opened in Somalia, where shortages of oxygen had, as in many developing countries, hampered treatment of coronavirus patients.
- Nine people were killed when a fire broke out in an intensive care unit at a Romanian hospital treating Covid patients, Reuters reports.
- India has announced that Britons will have to take Covid tests and undertake a 10-day mandatory quarantine when arriving in the country.
- The US supreme court has announced Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for Covid.
- In the United States, California has announced the nation’s first coronavirus vaccination mandate for schoolchildren. The plan, announced by Governor Gavin Newsom, will see all elementary and high school students receive jabs once the vaccine gains final approval from the US government for different age groups.
- Italy reported 52 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday - up one from the 51 registered the day before, the health ministry said. It comes as the daily tally of new infections fell to 3,405 from 3,804.
- In Australia, Victoria state has included professional athletes in a vaccination mandate that will require about 1.25 million “authorised workers” to have two Covid shots by the end of November.
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Russia has recorded its highest coronavirus death toll for a fourth day running, the Moscow Times reports.
- The UK pub chain Wetherspoons sunk to its biggest ever loss last year as Covid-19 rules led to the chain shuting its pubs for 19 weeks.
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Sri Lanka has lifted a near six-week lockdown but maintained a night curfew and a ban on public gatherings and parties, AFP reports.
Well, that’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I will be back next week but my colleague Nadeem Badshah will be keeping you across all the latest coronavirus news as it happens tonight. Goodnight.
In the United States, California has announced the nation’s first coronavirus vaccination mandate for schoolchildren.
The plan, announced by Governor Gavin Newsom, will see all elementary and high school students receive jabs once the vaccine gains final approval from the US government for different age groups.
The Associated Press reports:
The government has fully approved the Covid-19 vaccine for those 16 and over but only granted an emergency authorization for anyone 12 to 15. Once federal regulators fully approve the vaccine for that group, the state will require students in seventh through 12th grades to get vaccinated in both public and private schools, Newsom’s office said.
The state will require the Covid-19 vaccine for students in kindergarten through sixth grade only after the federal government has given final approval for anyone 5 to 11.
The announcement comes as infections in most of California have dropped markedly in the last month. But Newsom has been emboldened after easily defeating a recall effort last month following a campaign where he emphasized his commitment to vaccine mandates to end the pandemic.
In Los Angeles County — the nation’s largest, with more than 10 million residents — just 1.7% of people tested for the virus have it and daily infections are down by half in the last month, when most children went back to school.
UK reports 127 more coronavirus deaths today
The UK recorded a further 127 Covid deaths and 35,577 new cases on Friday.
By comparison, Thursday’s data reported 137 deaths and 36,480 cases.
Italy reported 52 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday - up one from the 51 registered the day before, the health ministry said.
It comes as the daily tally of new infections fell to 3,405 from 3,804.
Italy has registered 130,973 deaths linked to Covid since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world.
The country has reported 4.68 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with Covid - not including those in intensive care - stood at 3,118 on Friday, down from 3,198 a day earlier.
There were 20 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 26 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 429 from a previous 440.
Updated
Cuba is stepping up its vaccination programme as part of its plans to fully inoculate 90% of its population against the coronavirus by December.
It is an ambitious goal that has yet to be reached by even wealthier nations but the health ministry reported on Thursday that more than 80% of Cuba’s 11.3 million people had received at least a first shot of a three-dose vaccine regimen with Cuban-made vaccines Abdala, Soberana-2 or Soberana-plus.
Close to 50% were fully vaccinated, it said - well ahead of the global average of 34%, according to the Our World In Data website, Reuters reported.
Its government has said Cuba is on track to become the first country to inoculate so much of its population with its own vaccines. It is administering them to those as young as two years old after clinical trials testing them on children.
In Australia, Victoria state has included professional athletes in a vaccination mandate that will require about 1.25 million “authorised workers” to have two Covid shots by the end of November.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the health order on Friday as the southern state grapples with an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, Reuters reports.
The categories of authorised workers released by the Victoria government include “professional or high-performance sportsperson, workers that support the safe running of that person’s professional sport” and broadcasters.
Authorised workers must have their first vaccine shot by 15 October and their second by 26 November or face being banned from their workplaces.
Victoria is Australia’s first state to introduce such a sweeping vaccine mandate, though vaccination was made compulsory for workers in aged care last month across the country.
Booster jabs have been given to more than 860,000 people in England, according to the NHS.
The health service said a total of 863,460 people have had a top-up jab, including boosters and some third doses, while more than a million people have booked a booster jab since online booking opened on September 21.
NHS England medical director Professor Steve Powis said:
Once again NHS staff have risen to the challenge of delivering the NHS booster campaign at outstanding speed with NHS staff administering vaccinations to those most at risk from Covid just two days after government gave the green light.
Since then, more than 860,000 people have already come forward for that vital, additional top up in protection that will be needed this winter and I urge anyone who has received an invite to join the million other people who have booked in to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid added:
The NHS booster programme is already off to a tremendous start, with over 860,000 people in England alone having received a top-up jab in just a few short weeks.
Getting your booster vaccine if you are eligible, or your third primary dose if you are severely immunosuppressed, is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the protection you’ve gained from your first and second doses is maintained over the winter months.
Please get your Covid booster as soon as you’re offered it, as well as your flu vaccine, to help keep the virus at bay.
One in 20 secondary school pupils in England had Covid last week - ONS
It has been estimated that one in 20 young people at secondary school in England are estimated to have had coronavirus last week.
The new figures come as Covid infection levels remain high in all parts of the UK
But while the number of people testing positive for the virus is estimated to have increased in England and Wales, it has fallen slightly in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Press Association reports.
Around one in 85 people in private households in England are likely to have had Covid-19 in the week to September 25, up from one in 90 in the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). One in 85 is the equivalent of about 658,800 people.
At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 people in England were estimated to have coronavirus. Some 4.6% of children in England in school years 7 to 11 - around one in 20 - are likely to have had Covid-19 last week, the highest positivity rate for any age group.
The rate of children testing positive is estimated to have increased among those aged from two to school year 11, and there were also early signs of a possible increase for those aged 70 and over, the ONS said.
The figures for secondary school children were described as “extraordinarily high” by Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University. He added:
The rate in that age group didn’t start increasing really fast until roughly mid-September, so a little time after schools had reopened. It’s true that children of these ages are very unlikely to get seriously ill if they are infected. But they can pass on the infection to others.
It’s pleasing, however, to see a continuing fall in the rate of testing positive in those aged between school year 12 and age 24 - who, of course, have now been vaccinated in large numbers.
The ONS estimate for that group is that one in 90 would test positive, and that rate has been falling pretty steadily at least from mid-August, when it was about one in 30.
Updated
Britain’s antivirals taskforce declined to comment on talks over Merck & Co Inc’s experimental oral drug for Covid, molnupiravir.
It comes after trials showed it reduced the chance of hospitalisation or death for at-risk patients.
The taskforce’s chair Eddie Gray said:
We are involved in looking closely at all of the options available, but we’re really not in a position to give out the details around specific conversations at this moment in time.
He added:
The emergence of phase three data tends to accelerate all processes of this type, but I couldn’t give you a specific date.
India imposes quarantine requirements on British nationals in response to UK measures
India has announced that Britons will have to take Covid tests and undertake a 10-day mandatory quarantine when arriving in the country.
It comes as a response to the same measures imposed on Indians visiting the UK, according to the Associated Press.
India has been demanding that Britain revoke what it called a “discriminatory” advisory that includes Indians even if they are fully vaccinated with the Indian-made AstraZeneca shots.
The Associated Press reports:
India was irked that while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been recognised by Britain, its version produced by Serum Institute of India has been excluded.
A foreign ministry official said that starting on Monday, all British arrivals, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake RT-PRC test within 72 hours before travel, another test on arrival in India and the third one eight days later.
They will also have to quarantine at home or at their destination address for 10 days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters.
Updated
US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh tests positive for Covid
The US supreme court has announced Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for Covid.
The high court said in a press release that Kavanaugh has no symptoms and has been fully vaccinated since January.
Kavanaugh and all the other justices had a routine coronavirus test ahead of Friday’s ceremonial investiture for Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
The court says Kavanaugh’s wife and daughters are also fully vaccinated, and they tested negative on Thursday.
The court says Kavanaugh and his wife will not attend the investiture.
Updated
England R number between 0.8 and 1.1
England’s weekly coronavirus reproduction “R” number was estimated between 0.8 and 1.1, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday. However, it is less clear if the epidemic is still shrinking, Reuters reports.
An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 8 and 11 other people.
Last week, the R number was estimated between 0.8 and 1.0.
The daily growth of infections was estimated between -3% and +1%, compared with from -3% and -1% last week, meaning it is less clear if the epidemic is still shrinking.
Updated
Switzerland is offering gift certificates to people who persuade others to be jabbed against Covid, the government said on Friday.
The Reuters news agency reports that it is part of efforts to increase the country’s low vaccination rate.
Every newly vaccinated person will be asked to name one person who convinced them to be inoculated, the government said, with that person receiving a 50 Swiss franc gift token for their assistance.
Local authorities will decide where the voucher can be used, for instance at cinemas or restaurants. The government said:
Everyone can help to convince a friend, neighbour, work colleague or family member of the benefits of vaccination. This cooperation of the population should be rewarded.
Switzerland has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe, with only 58% of the country’s 8.7 million population fully vaccinated.
Updated
The UK government has announced new rules to enable football players who travel to red zone countries during the international break to play upon their return, but conditions will be stricter for those not fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Returning players who have had both Covid vaccine jabs will enter a quarantine similar to that experienced by Olympic athletes in Tokyo this summer. Allowed to train and play matches from the day of their return, players will otherwise be confined to “bespoke quarantine facilities” for 10 days.
The move will privately be welcomed by the Premier League. Low levels of vaccination are a common feature among top-flight squads and the league is concerned about the possibility of new restrictions on competition should a winter coronavirus wave occur.
The government’s exemptions will most benefit players from South American countries, with every team currently on the red list. They were developed as a response to the events of the last international window when Premier League clubs were at the centre of international rows regarding quarantine.
A government spokesperson said:
We have worked closely with football authorities to achieve an outcome that balances the interests of both club and country while maintaining the highest levels of public health and safety.
Our best defence against the virus is vaccination and these new measures will allow fully vaccinated players to fulfil their international duties in the safest, most practical way possible, while allowing them to train and play with their clubs as early as possible upon their return.
The European Union drug regulator said today that there is a possible link between rare cases of bloods clots in deep veins with Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has now recommended the condition be listed as a side-effect of the shot.
It also recommended immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), a bleeding disorder caused by the body mistakenly attacking platelets, be added as an adverse reaction with an unknown frequency to the J&J vaccine product information and to AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
Some more detail on the news that the pharmaceutical firm Merck have developed a pill that cuts the effects of coronavirus.
The trial tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate Covid, who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.
Half were given a five-day course of the pill, called molnupiravir. In the placebo group, 53 patients (14%) were hospitalised compared with only 28 (7%) of those who received the drug.
There were no deaths in the drug group after that time period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck.
The data from the study was made public in a press release and has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, an independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so encouraging.
Only limited information on side-effects was made public in the press release, but the companies said rates were similar between the placebo group and the treated group.
An adverse event, or bad outcome, occurred in 35% of those who received molnupiravir and 40% of those who received placebo. Only 1.3% of participants who received the drug discontinued treatment because of an adverse event, compared with 3.4% who discontinued the placebo.
A convenient pill that patients could take when Covid symptoms first appear has long been viewed as a crucial goal in controlling future waves of infection and reducing the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
Updated
About one in 85 had Covid last week in England
The prevalence of coronavirus infections in England increased to about one in 85 people in the week ending 25 September, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday, up from the previous week’s figure of one in 90.
The prevalence of Covid cases remains lower than it was two weeks ago, when it was estimated at one in 80, reports Reuters.
Updated
In the US, the California school boards association has pleaded with the governor to protect education officials facing an “unprecedented increase in hostility”, as board meetings across the state have been rocked by aggressive protests over Covid-19 restrictions.
In a letter to Gavin Newsom, the association, which represents nearly 1,000 education agencies across the state, said school board members have been “accosted, verbally abused, physically assaulted, and subjected to death threats against themselves and their family members”.
A principal performs temperature checks on students as they arrive for the first day of school in Orlando, Florida, on 10 August.
US school board meetings have become battlegrounds for culture wars this year as schools debated how to resume in-person classes amid the pandemic. Parents have disrupted meetings, refused to wear masks and threatened school board members.
A school board in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, that was considering a temporary mask mandate cancelled its meeting last week after a crowd of 200 protesters surrounded the building, banged on doors and shouted at police.
Updated
Merck says experimental pill cuts worst effects of coronavirus
Good morning, I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest coronavirus news from the UK and around the world throughout the day.
We start with the breaking news that Merck & Co has said that its experimental Covid pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people recently infected.
The multinational pharmaceutical company said it would soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorise its use. The Associated Press reports:
If cleared, Merck’s drug would be the first pill shown to treat Covid, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All Covid therapies now authorized in the US require an IV or injection.
Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of Covid symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalisation and death as patients who received a dummy pill.
The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate Covid who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.
An independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so strong.
Company executives said they are in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and plan submit the data for review in coming days.
Dr Dean Li, vice-president of Merck research, said:
It exceeded what I thought the drug might be able to do in this clinical trial. When you see a 50% reduction in hospitalisation or death that’s a substantial clinical impact.
Side effects were reported by both groups in the trial, but they were slightly more common among the group that received a dummy pill. The company did not specify the problems.
Updated
A publicly owned oxygen plant has opened in Somalia, where shortages of oxygen had, as in many developing countries, hampered treatment of coronavirus patients.
The oxygen plant was installed Thursday at a hospital in the capital, Mogadishu, according to the Associated Press. It is expected to produce 1,000 cylinders of oxygen a week.
Insecurity in Somalia has left it with one of the world’s weakest healthcare systems, and one of Africa’s highest Covid-19 case fatality rates. A Covid ward recently set up at the same hospital was partially destroyed weeks ago in an attack by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which controls parts of Somalia and frequently targets the capital.
The country has had nearly 20,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, but more infections are likely undetected because testing is not widespread. Just 1% of the country’s 15 million people has been vaccinated.
In Israel, the health ministry has said there have been fewer than 10 cases of heart inflammation among a cohort of 1.5 million people who received a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
Israel, which has one fo the most comprehensive and aggressive vaccine programmes in the world, began administering the third doses to at-risk individuals in July. By the end of August, it extended the programme to all Israelis over 12 who had gone more than five months since their last dose.
In data published late on Thursday, the health ministry reported nine cases of myocarditis within four age groups that comprised more than 1.5 million people who had received a booster dose, according to Reuters.
All were male, three were between the ages of 16 and 29 and six were in the 30-59 group. Eight more possible cases were still being reviewed. Most myocarditis cases are generally mild, the ministry said.
In total, out of all 3.2 million Israelis who have received a third dose, 25 reported serious adverse events that appeared within 30 days, including myocarditis, though a causal link had yet to be established among many of them.
Since the so-called Delta variant of coronavirus began spreading in Israel in June, the government has reimposed indoor mask wearing and Israelis “green passes” - digital documents that confirm full immunisation, including a third shot, or recovery from Covid - to enter most places of leisure. Teachers must either be vaccinated or get tested in order to enter schools.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalised in serious condition has been dropping in recent days, as has the number of confirmed daily cases, which now stand at around 4,000, compared with around 8,000 a month ago.
JD Wetherspoon said it is struggling to find staff in some parts of England as the pub chain counts the cost of the coronavirus pandemic, reporting a record loss of almost £200m.
The founder and chairman, Tim Martin, said that overall the pub chain had received a “reasonable number” of applications for vacancies, with employee numbers rising by 3,000 to 42,000 between the end of Wetherspoon’s financial year on 25 July and 20 September. However, it has struggled to find staff in some areas, such as holiday hotspots.
Read more here:
Nine people were killed when a fire broke out in an intensive care unit at a Romanian hospital treating Covid patients, Reuters reports.
Firefighters extinguished the fire at the hospital in the eastern city of Constanta at around 7.55 GMT, having brought in additional teams from nearby counties.
Video footage showed patients jumping out of windows from the hospital’s lower levels and firefighters carrying people out.
Interim Health Minister Cseke Attila said 113 patients were in the hospital at the time of the fire, including 10 in the intensive care unit.
Emergency response teams have installed a mobile triage unit near the hospital and 50 patients have so far been evacuated and transferred to other hospitals.
There were more than 12,100 Covid patients, including 315 children, being treated in Romanian hospitals as of Thursday, including 1,364 in intensive care units.
The number of new infections in Romania reached 12,032 on Thursday, a new record high, and intensive care units across the country were running out of space.
Russia reports record Covid death toll
Russia has recorded its highest coronavirus death toll for a fourth day running, the Moscow Times reports.
It reported 887 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, the largest single-day death toll it has recorded since the pandemic began and the fourth day in a row it has set that record.
The government coronavirus task force also said it had recorded 24,522 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Updated
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has launched a drive to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
He launched the first “vooma” vaccination weekend in Katlehong, south-east of the capital, Johannesburg.
President @CyrilRamaphosa has arrived in in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni where he is leading the inaugural #VoomaVaccination Weekend where he is mobilising citizens to get vaccinated to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He is received by Mayor Cllr Masina and Gauteng MECs Mokgothu & Hlophe. pic.twitter.com/BnLba7P37Y
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) October 1, 2021
Ahead of the visit, Ramaphosa said: “Vaccination is our best defence. If we can reach our vaccination targets by the end of this year, we can avoid further restrictions and kick our economic recovery into high gear.”
On Thursday, his government eased national Covid restrictions. The national curfew in South Africa is now only in place from midnight to 4am. A ban on weekend alcohol sales, has also been lifted, and large public gatherings will be permitted.
Updated
Finland begins vaccinating mink
Finland will begin vaccinating minks on fur farms against Covid after the authorities granted temporary approval for an experimental vaccine, AFP reports.
The conditional usage permit “is valid until the end of December, by which time the applicant has to provide further data”, said senior inspector Liisa Kaartinen of the Finnish Food Authority, which oversees veterinary activities.
Such conditional permits can be granted during a pandemic when no other vaccine is available.
Minks are bred for their fur and have been found at particular risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.
“We have prepared about half a million doses now, which should be enough to vaccinate all animals twice,” said Jussi Peura, research director at the Finnish Fur Breeders’ Association, which developed the vaccine together with researchers from Helsinki University.
Because clinical trials have not yet been carried out, the jab cannot be distributed commercially and must be used in conjunction with strict procedures on Finland’s 1,000 fur farms to monitor and prevent the spread of the virus.
The vaccine approval applies only to Finland, where so far no cases of the novel coronavirus have been identified among minks, and where transmission rates among humans have remained some of the lowest in the European Union.
The breeders’ association believes its vaccine is the first to receive such approval in the EU.
Neighbouring Russia said in March it had registered what it called the world’s first animal vaccine against Covid, previously tested on dogs, cats, mink and foxes.
The mink is the only animal identified so far as being able to transmit Covid to humans.
Denmark, previously Europe’s largest exporter of mink pelts, saw its fur industry ravaged after a mutated strain of the virus spread through mink farms last November. All the country’s 15 million minks were subsequently culled.
Updated
A new public health body with a focus on prevention to help reduce the pressure on overstretched NHS services has been launched in the UK today.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) will work to tackle “unacceptable” health inequalities across the country and combat the top preventable risk factors for poor health, including obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption, the government said.
It comes as Public Health England (PHE) is replaced, with the OHID taking on responsibility for health improvement and the new UK Health Security Agency focusing on health protection.
The government said the OHID would be “the driving force” to “level up” the nation’s health, adding that men in the most deprived areas are expected to die nearly 10 years younger - seven for women - than those in affluent areas.
Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, will provide professional leadership to the OHID. He said:
Health inequalities in England are stark and they are challenging to address but it is important we do so.
People across the country can live in better health for longer. OHID will support people to do so with an evidence-based approach.
Reducing health inequalities and keeping people in better health for longer is in everyone’s interest - it is good for the individual, families, society, the economy and NHS.
That’s why OHID will work collaboratively across the national, regional and local levels as well as with the NHS, academia, the third sector, scientists, researchers and industry.
Public health in the UK has had many great achievements in preventing disease and saving lives, including the remarkable work of PHE.
— Professor Chris Whitty (@CMO_England) October 1, 2021
Today a new chapter begins with the start of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
From today the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is fully operational. Read this blog from CEO Dr Jenny Harries about how we will protect people from infectious disease and other health hazards: https://t.co/lmLontGYW7 pic.twitter.com/bPnMC9qF5r
— UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) October 1, 2021
Updated
Covid cases have soared to critical levels across Syria in recent weeks, officials told AFP, with health facilities reaching maximum capacity and unable to cope.
In some of the areas most affected by the country’s decade of conflict, health infrastructure is insufficient while basic medical supplies and vaccine doses are in short supply.
While the number of cases is spiking across the country, the areas that seem worst hit by the pandemic’s latest wave are those in the north that still escape government control.
In the Idlib region, where around half of the more than three million residents were displaced by conflict, the number of recorded daily infections has increased sharply and now often tops 1,000 a day.
“From August to September the confirmed number of coronavirus cases in northwest Syria jumped by 144% to 71,715 as of 28 September with 1,151 deaths,” Save the Children said.
The charity said only a dozen beds in intensive care units remained for the entire region and called for emergency international assistance to avert an even bigger disaster.
“One death from coronavirus is one too many, but to hear that a baby and a 17-year-old have also been claimed is devastating,” said Sonia Khush, the NGO’s Syria response director.
“The world must not look away,” she said.
Covid-19 cases are also increasing in the country’s northeast, which is mostly controlled by an autonomous Kurdish administration, and in government areas.
The Syrian health ministry said last week that hospitals in Damascus and in the main coastal city of Latakia had reached full capacity.
'Issues' with Scotland's new vaccine passport
Problems are emerging with Scotland’s Covid vaccine passport app, just hours after its launch, according to the BBC.
From Friday people need to prove they have had two doses of vaccine to enter nightclubs and other large events.
Twitter user @YesImJack, who describes himself as a software developer in academia, shared screen shots of the problems he has been having with the app.
After scrolling through various introductory screens and a privacy policy (let's be real, who reads them?) I'm met with this login screen. Common sense would dictate that I can use my https://t.co/u3vAEk36sT login that I use to access my vaccination status online, right? pic.twitter.com/wXhQpkE3Gf
— Jack (@YesImJack) September 30, 2021
Others have reported similar issues:
Well the Covid Status App really isn't very good! Despite having my CHI number (who knew we had one of those?) and all details completed, my records don't exist. #covidstatusapp@NHSScotland @scotgov pic.twitter.com/EkJvZPz1e1
— Ross McEwan (@RossMcEwan10) October 1, 2021
Thankfully I’ve got my covid status letter 📄The new NHS Scotland COVID Status App 📱is sadly of no use and a poor user experience. Apparently I don’t exist even though my details are 💯 % correct. I’ve even given my CHI number. pic.twitter.com/xfkPZSQmyO
— Robert Reilly-Craig 🏴🏳️🌈 (@TheRRC_) October 1, 2021
I’ve spent an hour trying to get COVID status app to work. @NHSScotland @HumzaYousaf where do I go for help? This needs a lot of work. Extremely poor user experience. Who signed this off? Please get better digital advisers. pic.twitter.com/BlkCwG53IS
— David Millar (@david_millar) October 1, 2021
NHS Scotland COVID Status app, only been trying this to work for 12 hours, and my details are 100% correct arrrrgh. pic.twitter.com/vRkI5LbQdF
— Gary Duncan (@Gazd99) October 1, 2021
Others suggested retrying the app after logging out:
Pro tip - if anyone's NHS Scotland Covid Status app is stuck at the "Your Covid status will be displayed here" page, log out and log back in. It's (finally) showing mine! https://t.co/81RrofKVOj pic.twitter.com/IVJuUWnYq5
— Elizabeth (@strengthtodream) September 30, 2021
A government spokesman told the BBC:
Some people may be experiencing issues which are likely to be caused by extremely high initial traffic and a large number of users trying to access the app at once. We advise people whose data is not found to try again a couple of hours later.
Updated
Some New York hospitals have experienced staff shortages after vaccinations were made mandatory for health workers, but the new rule appears to be working.
Updated
Singapore’s reimposition of coronavirus restrictions has been met with some rare frustration as the government walks a fine line between reopening and preventing hospitals from getting overwhelmed, Reuters reports.
Singapore has largely kept the virus at bay since last year with masks, contact tracing and a closed border.
Infections are surging to new daily records of more than 2,000, but with 82% of its 5.4 million people fully vaccinated 98.1% of cases over the past month have been asymptomatic or involved only mild symptoms.
Singapore relaxed restrictions in August, after 18 months of largely successful mitigation efforts, with a plan for more easing after reaching the 80% vaccination target in early September.
But instead, with the Delta variant spreading, the reimposition of restrictions, with dining out and other social interactions limited to groups of just two people, has dashed hopes.
“We hit our vaccination targets yet we are moving backwards. The stats speak for itself,” Shin Hui Tan posted on Facebook. “Why we are still not treating this as flu baffles me.”
The government has said the tighter measures are “temporary breaks” needed to buy time to expand healthcare capacity, set up more isolation facilities, reach more of the unvaccinated and get booster shots to those who need them.
About 300 ICU beds can be readied at short notice. As of Thursday, 34 cases were in intensive care but a wave of unvaccinated people getting seriously sick could swamp the health system.
Despite the risks, the government’s message is that in order to open up, Singapore has to learn to live with much higher rates of infection than it has become used to.
“We are not going back to a scenario of low daily cases anymore,” finance minister Lawrence Wong said recently.
“It is not going to be possible, because we are moving forward to learn to live with the virus and we are continuing with our reopening plans.”
Numerous anxious people, most with asymptomatic or mild cases, have been turning up at hospitals and phoning up help lines confused as to just what exactly they are meant to do.
A Milieu Insight survey found 52% of people felt the latest restrictions were “just right”, while 25% think they are too strict and the remainder that they are too lax, the Straits Times newspaper reported this week.
Updated
Thailand has reported 11,754 new cases – 108 more than figure for new cases announced on Thursday. New infections in Thailand peaked on 13 August when there were 23,418.
The Thai authorities also announced 123 new deaths from Covid – 16 more than Thursday’s figure.
#COVID19 situation in #Thailand as 1 October 2021
— PR Thai Government (@prdthailand) October 1, 2021
😷New Confirmed Cases: 11,754
🦠Cumulative number of cases: 1,615,229 (+11,754)
👍🏻Recoveries: 1,483,143 (+12,473)
🩺Receiving medical treatments: 115,233
📣Fatalities: 16,850 (+123)
💉Cumulative number of vaccination: 53,784,812 pic.twitter.com/JukW7KGUwe
Updated
In England, NHS tests and scans are to be offered at football stadiums and shopping centres to help deal with the backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The health service is launching 40 “one-stop shop” diagnostic centres across England, which will carry out a wide range of health checks after referrals from GPs.
Some of the sites will be set up in existing buildings, including a repurposed retail outlet in Poole, the Falmer Stadium – home of Brighton and Hove Albion football club, and the Glass Works shopping centre in Barnsley.
The scheme, backed by a £350m government investment, aims to provide about 2.8m scans in the first year of operation.
Updated
The UK pub chain Wetherspoons sunk to its biggest ever loss last year as Covid-19 rules led to the chain shuting its pubs for 19 weeks.
Pre-tax losses rose from £34.1m to £154.7m in the 12 months to July 25 compared with a year earlier, with sales falling from £1.26bn to £773m, although chairman Tim Martin suggested there were signs of recovery.
Martin said sales in the past nine weeks were just 8.7% lower than the same period before the pandemic and have been improving further in the past four weeks.
However, airport sales remain low – down 47.3% on pre-pandemic levels – and the company is finding it hard to fill job vacancies in “staycation” locations across the country.
Updated
Hospitality and tourism bosses in the UK are pleading with the government to permanently lower the VAT rate on businesses in their sectors to help safeguard thousands of jobs.
The appeal comes as the tax’s rate for pubs, restaurants, holiday accommodation and admission to certain attractions rises on Friday to 12.5%, following a temporary cut to 5% that was introduced in July 2020 to help businesses struggling in the pandemic.
Under the Treasury’s plans, VAT on hospitality and tourism sector purchases will rise again to the pre-pandemic level of 20% in April next year.
A coalition of the UK’s biggest hospitality and tourism bodies on Friday warned the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that returning the rate to 20% “risks derailing the recovery at a time when businesses are still in survival mode”.
“Businesses are at a perilous stage of their recovery after what’s been a devastating 18 months,” the trade bodies said in their joint letter.
“Costs are increasing and there are numerous operational challenges for them to deal with, specifically around labour and product supply. A reduction in VAT has helped many of our businesses survive to this point and was most welcome.
“However, the return of VAT to its pre-pandemic level next year would curtail investment, restrict growth, set back our tourism recovery and risk yet more painful job losses.”
Read more here:
Updated
Romania’s centrist minority government has introduced new progressive restrictions including making mask wearing mandatory outside, but has opted to keep schools open, Reuters reports.
The number of new Covid infections in Romania reached a record 12,032 on Thursday and intensive care units across the country were running out of space as the country has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union.
The government made masks mandatory both in indoor and outdoor public spaces in places where the case incidence exceeds six per 1,000 people.
Access to restaurants, gyms, theatres, cinemas and other indoor spaces would be enabled at half of capacity and only for people who were fully vaccinated or have already been infected.
Weekend curfews will be introduced for those who are not vaccinated.
Schools have been uncoupled from the case incidence rate to enable them to remain open unless cases are reported in specific classrooms. School staff and students will undergo regular, non-invasive testing.
Romania is trailing European Union vaccination lists, with just over a third of its adult population fully vaccinated amid distrust in state institutions and misinformation campaigns. About 40% of medical and school staff are not vaccinated.
Updated
Sri Lanka lifts six-week lockdown
Sri Lanka has lifted a near six-week lockdown but maintained a night curfew and a ban on public gatherings and parties, AFP reports.
Daily deaths had jumped to over 250 with 4,000 infections after Sri Lankans celebrated the traditional Sinhala and Tamil new year in mid-April, but case numbers have since eased.
The health ministry on Friday urged companies to encourage staff to work from home but there was no decision yet on reopening schools that have been closed since March last year.
“It is imperative to maintain the progress made to curb Covid-19 infections and the dreaded daily death toll,” health minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.
Official figures show that nearly 13,000 people have died of the virus, with more than half a million infections, but health sector experts say the actual numbers could be at least twice as much.
The easing of restrictions came as the government pushes a vaccination drive, fully inoculating 56% of the population of 21 million.
Alongside the six-hour night curfew, the health ministry said that inter-provincial travel would remain banned.
Numbers attending weddings and funerals will be restricted to a maximum of 10 until 15 October.
Permission has been granted for sporting events to go ahead but without spectators.
Updated
All the best Helen and thanks for keeping this blog going for so long.
Well, that’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today – and for the next year. I’m off to have a baby.
Thank you, as always, for following along and to those ever-helpful readers who have sent news and tips through in the last 18 months.
I’ll see you in September 2022, whatever it may hold.
Updated
Malaysia sees record monthly deaths after backlog counted
Malaysia recorded 9,671 deaths due to Covid in September, the deadliest month since the pandemic began, government data showed on Friday, though authorities have said the increase was mostly due to the delayed inclusion of fatalities from previous months.
Reuters: The spike has pushed Malaysia’s death toll to among the highest per capita in Asia, even as new infections have slowed in recent weeks amid a ramped-up vaccination programme.
September’s figure accounted for more than a third of the 26,335 total Covid deaths reported in Malaysia, which has recorded more than 2.2 million infections, the third-highest number in south-east Asia.
Health ministry officials, however, say the reporting of many deaths have been delayed – some up to several months – as rising cases overwhelmed hospitals and testing labs.
The ministry in September began releasing daily data according to the time of deaths, as well as their reporting date, in a bid to improve transparency and clear the backlog.
Although Malaysia reported a daily average of 322 Covid fatalities in September, actual daily deaths fell to 89 as of Thursday based on a seven-day rolling average, the data showed.
Authorities have pledged to reduce the lags by imposing time limits on hospitals to confirm cause of death.
Updated
UK cases rise after schools return
The number of daily new Covid infections in the UK has risen in the past month after the removal of most pandemic restrictions and as schools and offices reopened, fuelled by the Delta variant. The latest daily figures up to 30 September show that 36,480 people tested positive for Covid-19 across the UK, an increase from the start of the month.
The government said a further 137 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, bringing the UK total to 136,662. Almost 49 million people have had a first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, about 90% of the adult population. Almost 45 million – about 83% – have had a second.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.
The number of daily new Covid infections in the UK has risen in the past month after the removal of most pandemic restrictions and as schools and offices reopened, fuelled by the Delta variant.
Meanwhile Malaysia recorded 9,671 deaths due to Covid-19 in September, the deadliest month since the pandemic began, government data showed on Friday, though authorities have said the increase was mostly due to the delayed inclusion of fatalities from previous months.
The spike has pushed Malaysia’s death toll to among the highest per capita in Asia, even as new infections have slowed in recent weeks amid a ramped-up vaccination programme.
More on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:
- The UK government has announced additional funding for adult social care infection control which it says will help prevent infections and support testing in adult social care throughout the winter.
- Flu jabs are safe to give at the same time as the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, according to the first clinical trial to investigate co-administering the shots in a single appointment.
- South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has spoken to Boris Johnson regarding the “red list” status imposed by the UK on his country.
- United Airlines has reduced the number of employees who face losing their job for defying the company’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. The carrier said 320 US-based staff rather than an earlier figure of 600 are now not in compliance with its Covid-19 vaccination policy.
- A 20-day-old baby and a pregnant teen have died from Covid-19 in Syria, during a serious spike in cases over the past month, the charity Save the Children said. The charity said there were 1,151 deaths in north west Syria over the past month and cases rose 144%.
- Singapore recorded its highest-ever number of cases, with a rise of more than 200 to 2,478 in a week when it has tightened restrictions on social interactions.
- Only 15 countries in Africa have been able to meet the goal of vaccinating 10% of their populations – a target set earlier this year by the World Health Assembly for all countries to meet as a minimum by the end of this month.
- Medical charity MSF called for French pharmaceutical Sanofi to transfer knowledge and technology for its mRNA vaccine candidate to the WHO’s vaccine development hub in South Africa. Sanofi announced that it would be shelving the vaccine, despite promising results from early trials.
- The Philippines will need a decade for its economy to recover from the pandemic, a senior economy official announced, saying the damage from lockdowns will be felt by two generations.
Updated
